Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has said that the government will clear all pending bills owed to health facilities under the defunct National Health Insurance Fund(NHIF) in the next two months.
These pending bills are outstanding payments owed by NHIF to healthcare facilities, including public, private, and faith-based facilities, for services rendered to its members before it went obsolete.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, September 3, Duale claimed that the repayment of the pending bills, which is under the directive of President William Ruto, will be made immediately after the National Treasury introduces a supplementary budget.
According to Duale, the first repayment of the bills, which amount to Ksh5.3 billion, will be made to hospitals that the government owes between Ksh1 to and Ksh10 million.
"And these pending bills of the NHIF are why we had to close NHIF and start SHA, because it was a den of corruption, where patients' money, which is immoral and unconstitutional, and we will not allow it to go forward," Duale stated.
"Anybody with a pending bill of NHIF from Ksh1 to Ksh10 million, which totals Ksh5.3 billion, accounting for 92percent of the entire NHIF bill, as a government under the directive of the president, we will pay it in the next two months," he added.
Furthermore, Duale has said that the government has already formed an independent team, outside the Ministry of Health, to verify all pending bills that exceed Ksh10 million before settling them.
"After we formed a team, some fraudulent individuals who knew that their claims were fake went to court to stop me from what they successfully did after the court declared the committee unconstitutional and i agree with the court but 1 want to say that the same constitution obligates me to protect public funds, so if you want me to pay you, we have to verify the claims," the CS said.
Duale claimed that the verification process will be fundamental in weeding out more fraudulent individuals who claim that the government owes them money, yet it is false.
The announcement by the CS comes days after he submitted 1,188 files and supporting evidence of alleged fraudulent healthcare facilities to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for investigations.
In a statement on Monday, September 1, Duale said that the Social Health Authority (SHA) submitted 190 files, while the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) submitted 998 files.
The Ministry accused the facilities of several fraudulent practices, including billing for more costly procedures than what was truly performed, falsifying records, converting outpatient visits to inpatient ones, and submitting claims for services delivered to non-existent patients.
"The Social Health Authority (SHA) and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) have today submitted a total of 1188 files and supporting evidence to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI)—a major step in their joint fight against healthcare fraud," Duale stated.
"This action targets fraudulent and non-compliant healthcare facilities and individuals, marking a critical milestone in the ongoing effort to protect public funds and safeguard the integrity of Kenya's healthcare system," he added.
